The study was reportedly based on property damage claims from January 2008 and December 2009. Based on that information and adjusted for population, researchers determined how likely drivers were to get into a collision.

Washington D.C. is apparently not the place to live if you fear car accidents; it ranked number one on the list. Residents there are likely to get into a car accident once every 4.8 years. According to MSNBC, those drivers are 107.3 percent more likely to get into an accident than the average U.S. driver.

Other cities ranking at the top include Baltimore, Newark and Providence. Surprisingly, New York didn’t make the Top 10, and only ranked 20th. Drivers there were found to get into accidents on average once every 7.3 years. However, it should be noted that cab drivers were not taken into account.

The study found that the country’s safest drivers tend to live in smaller cities. Fort Collins, Colorado, ranks as the safest place for drivers. Those residents were found to get into accidents only one time every 14 years.

Other “safe” cities include Lincoln, Nebraska, and Boise, Idaho.
Even though there have been fewer collisions on average in recent years, car accidents still claim 32,000 lives in this country every year. That’s a scary statistic.

Last month, we wrote about an accident at a New Jersey amusement park in which five visitors suffered injuries on a water ride. While riding the Gauley at the Mountain Creek amusement park, 11 people became trapped at the mouth of a tunnel, five of whom suffered scrapes and bruises requiring medical attention.

While Mountain Creek and its current owners seem to have a good safety record, that particular ride was left over from a previous amusement park on the same property that went bankrupt after a number of expensive and high profile personal injury lawsuits.

Further investigation into the incident reveals that not only is the 30-year-old Gauley unsafe, but also suggests that the current staff of Mountain Creek is ill prepared to respond to emergencies.

It was recently revealed that the accident occurred when the vinyl liner inside of a tunnel ripped apart. It ended up trapping 11 riders and causing injuries to five of them. Furthermore, the real hero responsible for coordinating the rescue of these trapped riders was not a member of the park’s staff, but rather an off-duty officer from the Bergen County Sherriff’s Department.

Upon observing the trapped riders, the off-duty officer first gave assistance to a 13-year-old boy and then went to alert the lifeguards about the situation. A report issued by the Department of Community Affairs explains that “The guards apparently at first did not comprehend the severity of the situation and did not react.”

One lifeguard finally did jump to the officer’s aid, and together they worked to free the riders trapped under the ripped lining. Meanwhile, it took other staff members approximately 20 minutes to shut off water to the ride. By this time, most victims had already been freed.

The officer’s actions were commendable, and it was incredibly fortunate that he happened to be there that day. However, the report of this incident casts serious doubts on the competency and training of the park’s staff, which should have been primarily responsible for the safety of guests.

Although injuries were minor in this case, things could have been a lot worse.

When customers suffer injuries because of a business’s unsafe property or negligent staff, they may wish to seek appropriate compensation through a premises liability lawsuit.

In any hit-and-run accident, investigators must pursue all possible avenues to see if they can locate the culprit. Many times, however, victims of hit-and-run car accidents are left with the possibility of no one to hold accountable. When a wrongful death is involved, the scenario is even that much more difficult, because the deceased victim is unavailable to give any information as to who might be responsible for the accident.

In a recent Pennsylvania hit-and-run fatal car accident, the hit-and-run driver thought that he could get away with avoiding responsibility by claiming that his car was stolen. His report was filed just after his car was responsible for killing a 46-year-old woman in Wissinoming on Sept. 29.

The deceased victim was headed to work just before 7:00 a.m. All that police knew at that point was that the hit-and-run driver was driving a blue pickup truck with tinted windows.

Thankfully, within the hour, police located the truck nearby on the River waterfront. The truck did have front-end damage consistent with the crash. At the same time, its owner, a 28-year-old man reported the vehicle stolen.

How did investigators locate the car involved in the hit-and-run accident? How did they figure out that the vehicle was not stolen and that the owner himself was responsible for the accident? These are the types of questions that investigators face whenever they are dealing with a hit-and-run accident.

Aside from facing criminal charges of vehicular homicide, involuntary manslaughter, Delray Beach DUI and making a false statement, this man will also possibly be facing a wrongful death lawsuit by family members on behalf of their loved one for her untimely death.